


Prudence

by Bow



Category: AUSTEN Jane - Works, Sense and Sensibility (1995), Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-07 13:25:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8802553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bow/pseuds/Bow
Summary: Elinor made sure the hothouse flowers lasted, too.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jusrecht](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jusrecht/gifts).



Elinor made sure the hothouse flowers lasted, too. She trimmed the stems with a knife, and when the asters began to wilt and brown at the edges, she plucked the petals away one by one. While her sister cooed over the weeds that Willoughby had plucked from the field, Elinor set Colonel Brandon’s bouquet on the center of the kitchen table at Barton Cottage, turning it so that the brightest-colored blossoms faced the doorway.

She recognized that it was only a distraction from the more pressing causes that should have occupied her time. There were rooms to be swept, letters to be written, servants to be managed, retrenchments to be considered. Margaret had grown quite wild and should have had instruction of some kind--or at the very least, a modicum of discipline. But when Colonel Brandon arrived at the cottage to inquire after Marianne, Elinor was glad she had taken care of his flowers.

“I’m afraid my sister is not at home,” she had to tell him. “Mr. Willoughby has taken her for a drive in his carriage.” She hated to say it. She knew the words would make his face fall, and it was such a kind face. She could see something clutched in his right hand that was undoubtedly meant for Marianne--a thin red volume, bound in leather. “I’m not certain when they will return. But I am glad to see you, Colonel. Won’t you stay a while?”

For a moment, his eyes dropped to the ground, but he rallied quickly. “Yes. I thank you, Miss Dashwood,” he said. He moved slowly into the center of the room and set the book face down on the edge of the table.

His dark gaze swept across the kitchen and came to rest on the flowers. “I see they are still alive.”

“Oh yes,” said Elinor. “They’ve kept quite well. Really they’re very hearty.”

She watched one corner of his mouth slowly rise. “Miss Dashwood,” he said, the tones low and smooth on his tongue, “I know that if the flowers are still blooming, it is only because you have taken pains to keep them so. Is it not true?”

With some effort, Elinor managed not to flush red. “Perhaps you are right,” she began, gripping the back of the nearest chair with one hand. “But they were so beautiful that one wanted them to remain so. That's all. And, well, I thought that they deserved better than to be neglected.”

He smiled tightly. “It was kind of you. But I am a grown man, to put it mildly. There is no need to spare my schoolboy feelings.”

Elinor placed her hand on the chair again and steadied herself. “It seems to me to be a very rare quality in this world for a man to get what he deserves,” she said, feeling the truth of the statement keenly. For of course this experience was not limited to the sterner sex--when Elinor closed her eyes at night, she saw Norland Park far behind her and Edward’s wan face just before her own.

She let Edward’s reflection fade away and looked into Brandon’s face. His expression had changed; he looked pensive and resolute now, his brow deeply furrowed and his mouth pressed into a thin line. He looked almost handsome in profile. This was the sort of man you could rely upon, thought Elinor, a man who would keep your secrets and share your burdens.

 _Who is in your thoughts just now,_ she wondered, uncertain whether it might be a long dead stranger or someone uncomfortably nearer to her, and on an impulse that she followed for once, she clasped both her hands around one of his.

She let go at once, conscious that for the first time in her life she had taken leave of her senses entirely. Her treacherous hands were clutched in front of her. Elinor stood frozen, mortified, as yet still unable to choke out an apology for her lapse in judgment.

But Colonel Brandon was calm beside her. He wasn’t the type to startle easily. He assessed Elinor steadily, blinking back at her as though nothing had happened. 

She drew backward and he reached toward her, wrapping his fingers tightly around her right hand.

Elinor raised her eyes to his and quickly lowered them again. She felt then just how near he was, close enough for her to smell gunmetal and sweat. She swallowed. All the warmth in her body was concentrated in that one hand, where its thin bones and knuckles met his callused palm.

He squeezed Elinor's hand again, stroking the side of her wrist with his thumb. He took his other hand and brought it up to trace her jaw line, tilting her chin upward so their mouths met.

For a moment Elinor froze again, not even wishing to exhale. This was anything but prudent. Marianne and Willoughby were likely to burst through the front door with no warning, and her mother was napping in the next room. It was even conceivable that Margaret was surveying the scene with a spyglass. But Elinor had grown tired of doing what was prudent. Prudence had got her a secret heartache and the task of mopping up everyone else’s messes while her mother pined and Margaret ran riot and Marianne overflowed with intemperate joy. And didn’t Elinor deserve something better than what she had, just as she deserved the money to buy good white sugar instead of what sat on the table at every meal?

Yes, Elinor decided, she did. So when Colonel Brandon slid his tongue between her lips, she opened them. He kissed her. His mouth was not built for frivolity or reciting sonnets, but for doing just that, just there.

 _Just there,_ she thought. He paused; his eyes met hers. They glittered with a question. It was one Elinor didn’t know how to answer. But if she made a mess, at least she knew how to clean up after herself, she thought, and reached up for the back of his head to pull him closer.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to tradescant for beta!


End file.
